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Topic: Technical notes (Read 36368 times)

My posts about technical stuff never seem to fit properly with existing threads, so I'll make this catchall and occasionally throw some news into the basket (anybody else that finds things they're willing to share is of course welcome). First up: new Street View imagery for Portugal, Switzerland and Taiwan. I know--too little, too late for us--but it's interesting to see a bit of Kleine Rugen; and the M/O TARA3 elimination turns out to be just a few yards from the Astronomical Museum pit stop, making the car-sleep a bit of a sham.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Google is experimenting with changes to its core algorithms. The new code, called Caffeine, is described here.

Quote

The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences...

You can compare the old and new at sites like this. For some searches, the new system moved RFF up a few notches; in other searches, it fell behind, so it seems mostly a wash. (RFF is still #1 for Amazing Race spoilers).In other news, Twitter may soon tag posts with geodata, but it's a voluntary opt-in and I doubt that many people will sign up.

Dual Maps is a mashup mainly aimed at developers who want to embed custom maps on their websites, but it can also save time for those of us wanting to double-check our results. If you have an address or a GM link, you can get a multi-pane view: street map (or aerial), Google street view and Bing bird's eye (in parts of the world where those things are available).

Yandex, the all-purpose Russian search portal, has entered the street view business. There's only Moscow so far, but you can expect more cities: as this post explains, the authorities don't have to bother with pesky things like blurring faces or asking permission. An example is below: Dallas is (supposedly) running after his cab, but he's actually on the Garden Ring, nowhere near Bulgakov's flat (not that it matters, the phony editing behind the lost passport was already exposed by Gman). Also, there are alternatives:

Gdeetotdom has worse resolution, but more cities (here is a view of the bridal church in Novosibirsk).

Mappi in Russia uses technology from Norc, a site that specializes in Romania but also covers European cities like Prague (Moscow coverage halfway done)

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Google does an adequate job mapping Tokyo and HCMC. A couple of address finders to complement searching:

Diadiem covers the larger cities of Vietnam and has an English interface

An awkwardly named website allows searching for Japanese addresses using English, but you must know the address and a knowlege of the prefecture/ward system is helpful. Here's a Tokyo ward map and here is the address of the Hachiman shrine properly mapped out.

OK, here's my token contribution to the list of utilities, namely a FREE photo editor (with so much more).

PhotoScape beats Picasa hands down, IMO. If you hate Picasa (as I do), then you may want to check out PhotoScape. Tons of effects, good UI, and simple to use. Mainly for manipulating photos. And it's FREE.

Even has an EXIF info viewer, and a direct link to Pictriev (for searching faces on the internet).

OK, here's my token contribution to the list of utilities, namely a FREE photo editor (with so much more).

PhotoScape beats Picasa hands down, IMO. If you hate Picasa (as I do), then you may want to check out PhotoScape. Tons of effects, good UI, and simple to use. Mainly for manipulating photos. And it's FREE.

Even has an EXIF info viewer, and a direct link to Pictriev (for searching faces on the internet).

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Thanks. The pictriev stuff is interesting. Face recognition for the public is slowly getting better (we wish we had the stuff used by the government, and the government wishes it had the stuff used by the Vegas casinos ). Picasa and iPhoto have their apps, and Facebook has something called Photofinder; even if the software respects privacy options, you might get lucky with a public-photo search (I'm not a member, I've never tried it). I took Pictriev for a spin with two photos of Phil: the eyebrow photo matched him with J-Lo , but the second was spot on--it even made a guess at his age. I think it has to be a full-front face shot to be effective.

OK, here's my token contribution to the list of utilities, namely a FREE photo editor (with so much more).

PhotoScape beats Picasa hands down, IMO. If you hate Picasa (as I do), then you may want to check out PhotoScape. Tons of effects, good UI, and simple to use. Mainly for manipulating photos. And it's FREE.

Even has an EXIF info viewer, and a direct link to Pictriev (for searching faces on the internet).

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

There's a new metasearch for panos called Panogoogle. It searches the usual suspects--360 cities, panoramas.dk, etc.--but you can also try it for independent sites. Here's one for Dubai/UAE created by some real estate people (I think) that has some interesting views.

Chateau asked earlier about the dates for GE imagery and I can provide a partial answer. Ignore the dates by the copyright symbols. Zoom down close to the ground and check the lower-left for a date. Dubai is 23 Apr 08, HCMC is 11 Feb 08, Vierhuizen is just "2005," and PP is blank. According to this article, for international cities you can assume a default of 2004.